Been Driving on Bad Roads? That’s Reason Enough to Get Your Front End Checked
April 26, 2019 10:31 pm Leave your thoughtsIf you’ve been visiting family in the country, or if your neighborhood has been tearing up your street all spring, just to wait three weeks before finishing it and smoothing it out, you know you’ve been hard on your car running over potholes left and right. Potholes can cause damage to your vehicle in a number of ways. Even hitting a single one can cause severe damage to your vehicle. If you think things are still running smoothly, you may still want to invest in auto maintenance in New Palestine, IN just to be safe. Potholes and bad roads can affect your car in a number of ways:
- Tires: Tires can suffer the most from bad roads, since they are taking the brunt of the contact with the road itself. Low-profile tires are especially prone to damage. Potholes can cause sidewall bulges, tread separation and even flat tires. Pothole edges can puncture or compress the tire on impact, which can result in sliced rubber or the snapping of the belts. If you do have a blowout, never continue to drive on the flat, because it could still be fixable. You can stave off tire damage by making sure your tires are always correctly inflated and rotating them periodically.
- Wheels: While tires can often be repaired, chipped or cracked wheels will often need to be replaced. Hard angles in potholes and bad roads can apply impact force to wheels, resulting in bends, chips and cracks. Bent wheels do not roll smoothly and may fail to seal to the tire. Plus, road dirt and brake dust can hide cracks, too, so it’s best to invest in auto maintenance in New Palestine, IN to make sure your wheels are in good working order.
- Suspension: The jarring jolts and bumps of driving on a bad road can really impact your suspension, resulting in misalignment, damage to shocks and struts and broken ball joints. A mechanic in New Palestine, IN can put your suspension back into place if you’re feeling like your steering is uneven or loose. Listen as well to unusual sounds and note whether your vehicle leans to one side or the other so you can be aware of suspension problems and have them looked at by a mechanic.
- Exhaust: Bad roads and potholes can also scrape the exhaust pipe, which can dent or create holes in the pipe, muffler or catalytic converter. The exhaust fumes from a leaky pipe can pump toxic gases into the air and, more dangerously, into the interior of the car. A loss of power and strange noises are good alerts that your exhaust pipe is damaged.
- Body: Your frontend and body of your car suffers from bad roads as well. Scraped bumpers, nicks and scratches are inevitable when bouncing in and out of potholes. Cosmetic damage, though it doesn’t affect performance, is still disappointing to deal with for the long term.
If you’ve been driving on bad roads and need auto maintenance in New Palestine, IN, contact us at Auto Air & Heating, Inc. We can get you the best service and deal on any repairs you need done.
Categorised in: General Maintenance
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